Talas v. Correct Piping Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 18 May 1982
• Docket Number: No. 381S52,381S52
• Citation: 435 N.E.2d 22
• Parties: Woodrow TALAS, Appellant (Plaintiff below), v. CORRECT PIPING COMPANY, INC., Appellee (Defendant below).
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Page 22

435 N.E.2d 22

Woodrow TALAS, Appellant (Plaintiff below), v. CORRECT PIPING COMPANY, INC., Appellee (Defendant below).

No. 381S52.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

May 18, 1982.

Michael R. Morow, Munster, for appellant; Leonard M. Ring & Associates, Chicago, Ill., of counsel.

Samuel J. Furlin, Spangler, Jennings, Spangler & Dougherty, P. C., Merrillville, for appellee.

HUNTER, Justice.

This cause was brought before this Court on the petition to transfer of Woodrow Talas, who sought review of the Court of Appeals' opinion found at Talas v. Correct Piping Co., Inc., (1980) Ind.App., 409 N.E.2d 1223. We have previously granted Talas's petition, vacated the opinion of the Court of Appeals, and twice remanded this cause to the Full Industrial Board of Indiana with instructions that the Board enter the specific findings of fact upon which its decision is based. Talas v. Correct Piping Co., Inc., (1981) Ind., 426 N.E.2d 26; Talas v. Correct Piping Co., Inc., (1981) Ind., 416 N.E.2d 845.

On June 25, 1978, Talas fell from scaffolding while acting in the employ of Correct Piping Company. As a result of the fall, Talas was rendered a traumatic quadriplegic.

The record reveals Talas was hospitalized until August 3, 1978, when he was transferred to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago located in Chicago, Illinois. He was released from the Rehabilitation Institute on January 19, 1979, and returned to his home, where he received around-the-clock nursing care until June 16, 1979. Correct Piping Company paid the expenses of the nursing care until May 13, 1979.

Meanwhile, Talas and Correct Piping had executed a Form 12 agreement which was approved by the Industrial Board on April 6, 1979. Therein, the parties stipulated that Talas had suffered temporary disability from June 26, 1978, until December 6, 1978, and that he had sustained "100% permanent impairment of the man as a whole and 100% total permanent disability." The parties agreed that Talas should be awarded $120 a week for a period not to exceed five hundred weeks, the maximum time frame established under the Workmen's Compensation Act. See, Ind.Code § 22-3-3-8 (Burns 1981 Supp.); Ind.Code § 22-3-3-10 (Burns 1981 Supp.); Ind.Code § 22-3-3-22 (Burns 1981 Supp.).

Included in the Form 12 agreement was the following stipulation by the parties:

"It is agreed that the injury is in a permanent and quiescent state. It is further agreed that the question of continuing treatment for the employee's injuries, including surgical, hospital and nursing services and supplies, has not been agreed upon, and shall be left to the determination of the Industrial Board upon proper hearing pursuant to the Workmen's Compensation Act of the State of Indiana."

On September 21, 1979, Talas filed an emergency petition with the Industrial Board seeking an award of nursing care and services as necessary to sustain and maintain his life.

A hearing was held on the petition on November 28, 1979; based on the evidence and recognition that the Industrial Board may order an employer to furnish medical treatment, services, and supplies so as to limit or reduce the extent of impairment, the hearing officer ordered Correct Piping to pay for "all the medical and nursing care needed by plaintiff as a result of his said accidental injury, in order to reduce his disability or impairment."

Correct Piping Company then appealed the hearing officer's decision to the Full Industrial Board. Based on its review of the evidence, the Full Board overruled the hearing officer's determination and directed that Talas "take nothing" by way of his petition.

Talas then sought judicial review of the Full Board's determination, arguing among other things that the Board had failed to enter adequately specific findings of fact. As previously noted, this Court agreed with Talas and so assumed jurisdiction of his appeal. Talas v. Correct Piping, supra.

The Board has now presented us with findings of basic fact which embody the specificity necessary to permit an informed and intelligent review of its decision that Talas "take nothing." Those findings supplied to this Court on remand read in pertinent part:

"1. That on or about the 25th day of June, 1978, the plaintiff (Talas) was in the employ of the defendant (Correct) at an average weekly wage in excess of the maximum, and on said date, Talas sustained an accidental injury arising out of and in the course and scope of his employment when he fell causing a fractured cervical vertabra.

"2. Immediately after the accident Talas was taken to the hospital where Correct's workmen's compensation insurance carrier (insurance carrier) began paying the statutory medical, hospital, nursing care services and supplies. Talas was in the hospital until August 3, 1978, at which time he was transferred to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois.

"3. The insurance carrier was informed by the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago that Talas reached a permanent and quiescent state on December 7, 1978. However, because Talas' family had resisted attempts to give the family specific instructions for the care of Talas at home and the fact that the home had not yet been structurally altered to accommodate Talas, the insurance carrier voluntarily paid to have Talas remain in the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago until January 19, 1979.

"4. Between December 7, 1978, and January 19, 1979, the insurance carrier voluntarily paid to structurally alter Talas' residence and for some special equipment for Talas. Once the residence was ready for Talas, Talas was released from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago to go home on January 19, 1979.

"5. Again, because the family had resisted attempts to instruct them on how to care for Talas the insurance carrier again voluntarily paid attendant help for the plaintiff while he was home until May 13, 1979, when the home life stabilized. The insurance carrier seeing that the home life had stabilized made no further maintenance payments after May 13, 1979.

"6. On March 22, 1979, Talas, Correct, and the insurance carrier executed a Form 12 Agreement which was approved by this Board on April 6, 1979. Said Agreement provided that temporary total disability extended through December 6, 1978, and ended on December 7, 1978; that the plaintiff was in a permanent and quiescent state; that the plaintiff was 100% permanently impaired of the man as a whole; and that Talas was 100% totally permanently disabled.

"7. Even without the Award of April 6, 1979, (approved Form 12 Agreement) all of the medical evidence was to the effect that Talas had reached a permanent and quiescent state on December 7, 1978, and that he had a 100% permanent impairment of the man as a whole which was true at least as of December 7, 1978, up to the present time.

"8. After May 13, 1979, Talas was attended to by a layman, Mark Jackson, and Talas' wife. The layman was at Talas' home supplying maintenance eight (8) hours per day, including exercises. After the layman left, Talas' wife would take care of the plaintiff's maintenance needs. Talas' condition, needs, and exercise programs started at the Rehabilitation Institute under Dr. Vinod Sahgal were well handled by the layman, and Talas' wife. It was not necessary that a professional nurse care for Talas and the care that Talas received since May 13, 1979, has been excellent without professional help.

"9. Since Talas left the Rehabilitation Institute he only needed someone to provide maintenance such as moving him and to help him urinate. This could be done by anyone with average intelligence, including Talas' own family. Talas did not need a registered nurse for his care, nor any more medical treatment.

"10. Dr. Vinod Sahgal was the treating physician of the plaintiff at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and was therefore quite familiar with plaintiff's exercise program, what the exercise program could do or not do for Talas, Talas' needs, who could provide for Talas' needs, and whether any help plaintiff received would tend to limit or reduce the amount and extent of Talas' 100% impairment. Dr. Sahgal was of the opinion, which opinion the Full Board believes as a true fact, that since the plaintiff left the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago on January 19, 1979, there was no medical treatment which was necessary to limit or reduce the amount and extent of Talas' impairment or disability and that the amount and extent of Talas' impairment would never be reduced.

"11. The Board is aware that Talas made some self serving statements that some of his joints feel better if he exercises four (4) times per day rather than the present two (2) times. Regardless of the fact that Talas did not show why he can't exercise four (4) times per day without statutory medical, the Board does not believe that Talas' exercising, two (2) or four (4) times per day, is necessary to limit or reduce the amount and extent of his impairment. This is especially true when Talas' statements are viewed in conjunction with the treating physician (Dr. Sahgal, who instituted the exercise program) testimony that there was no care which would limit or reduce the amount and extent of Talas' impairment.

"12. That, in addition, Talas introduced into evidence certain medical bills paid by him and certain medical bills which are unpaid. The medical bills introduced by plaintiff were either without proper identification, and/or without any proof as to what they were for, and/or whether they were deemed necessary by the attending physician, and/or whether they were due to or caused by the accident involved in this cause, and/or whether they were obtained on plaintiff's own behalf, and/or whether they were charges as prevailed in the same community for similar services to injured persons of the like standard of living when such services are paid for by the injured person; further, Talas did not prove to the satisfaction of this Board that any of the...